If You Only Walk Long Enough

In a sweeping panorama which takes in everything from hot pepper ice cream and slug sex to the legacy of the Romantic movement and the future of the European brown bear, If You Only Walk Long Enough is a fascinating portrait of the French Pyrenees as they move into the 21st century. It is also the story of a solitary walker and a long-distance footpath, the Pyrenean Way (GR10). When he set out from the Atlantic coast, Steve Cracknell thought he was heading for the Mediterranean on a trail which ambled through the foothills. He ended up with crampons and ice axe, crossing glaciers to tackle the highest peaks of the range. In a book which is by turns amusing and thoughtful he treads lightly across the landscape, concluding that the Pyrenees are changing rapidly. Now is the time to discover them.